Committed to connecting the world

Newsroom • Press Release

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day marks ITU’s 146th
anniversary

Geneva,
17 May 2011—
The 2011 World Telecommunication and Information Society Award was presented to
three eminent personalities:
President Tarja Halonen of Finland, telecommunication innovator
Sam Pitroda, and CEO and co-founder of Inveneo Kristin Peterson. The Award
ceremony took place on
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, 17 May.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré lauded the laureates who have devoted their
attention towards promoting ICTs as a means of providing a better life through
global sustainability, particularly in rural communities. “ICTs are the
powerhouses of the global economy and offer real solutions towards generating
sustainable economic growth and prosperity,” Dr Touré said. “ITU is committed to
connecting the world and to ensuring that the benefits of ICTs reach the
remotest corners of the world as well as the most vulnerable communities,
especially in rural areas.”

President Tarja Halonen of Finland

In her message of acceptance, President Halonen said the Award was in
recognition of Finland for its efforts to promote
the use of and equal access to ICTs, both nationally and internationally. “Finlandhas
worked hard to develop an equitable and inclusive information society,”
President Halonen said. “We were the first country in the world to ensure — by
legislation — that all our citizens have the opportunity to use digital
services, irrespective of their place of residence, whether in the city or the
countryside, or the level of their income.”

President Halonen added, “Communications technology can provide effective tools
for the empowerment of people and development of democracy, the respect for
human rights and the rule of law. ICTs can help raise the standard of living in
all places of the world.” She said, “We have recognized that, in order to attain
the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, access to ICTs is of key
importance — especially in areas such as health care, the prevention of
illnesses and of course education. These are among the core areas of the
Millennium Development Goals, and also vitally important to the promotion of the
role of women.”

President Tarja Halonen was represented by Minister of Communications Suvi
Lindén.

Sam Pitroda

“I strongly believe that technology is a great social leveller and has the
potential to bridge barriers across domains, enhance access and enable a move
towards a more participative and open society,” Sam Pitroda said. “In the
present information society, ICTs can play an unparalleled role in linking
people, communities, driving collaborations and improving service delivery to
the poorest of the poor.” Recognized as the architect of India’s telecom
revolution, Pitroda noted that when he decided to work in India on building
India’s telecom infrastructure, he “was greeted by a fair degree of scepticism”
as it was “unheard of in the development paradigm of the time to bring
state-of-the-art technology to a third world country”. However, Pitroda saw an
opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people: “I saw in technological
development an opportunity for radical social transformation, enhancing capacity
and delivering benefits and opportunities which would allow people to cross the
threshold of development.”

Sam Pitroda is currently Adviser to the Prime Minister of India on Public
Information Infrastructure and Innovations and chairs the country's National
Innovation Council and the Smart Grid Task Force set up under the aegis of the
Ministry of Power. He also heads the Expert Committee on the use of ICT in
Railways. He is widely considered to have been responsible for
India’s telecommunications revolution and has
been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide.

Kristin Peterson

In accepting the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award, Kristin
Peterson noted that delivering technology to rural communities can present many
challenges, including environmental factors such as heat, dust and humidity as
well as lack of power. “At Inveneo we have made it our mission to find the right
technologies that can help organizations in these communities— schools, clinics, relief camps — successfully use ICTs to deliver
better vital services,” said Peterson. “So we’ve been building an eco-system of
certified in-country ICT entrepreneurs that we partner with around the world.
Together, with these partners, we are implementing projects that range from
solar-powered computer labs going in to hundreds of schools in
Uganda
and Tanzania, to building a
rural broadband network in rural Haiti.”

Kristin Peterson is the co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Inveneo, a
non-profit social enterprise focusing on information and
communication technologies in rural areas throughout the developing world. She
has led Inveneo’s efforts to provide ICT to deliver education, health care,
economic development and relief projects in Haiti and in 25 countries throughout sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia. Inveneo has also worked
in partnership with ITU in delivering training in low-cost rural wireless
networking in developing countries, such as Kenya,
Uganda and the Caribbean.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

The World Telecommunication and Information Society Award was presented on World
Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD), which
marks the establishment of ITU on 17 May, 1865. It highlights the potential of
information and communication technologies (ICT) in meeting the development and
economic aspirations of societies and on the importance of the Internet as a
global resource.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

In a message delivered on videotape, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “On
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, let us resolve to connect
the entire world as a means to foster peace and prosperity for all.”Noting that Information and communication technologies continue to
transform the global landscape, drive the world economy and help people
communicate across distances and cultural divides while providing access to
critical resources such as healthcare and education, Mr Ban added: “Recent
events in North Africa and the Middle East have also highlighted the catalytic
role that mobile phones and social media can play in galvanizing public opinion
against repression. And in the aftermath of natural disasters, these
technologies are a vital part of the aid response, establishing lines of
communication that save lives, reunite families and help emergency relief reach
people in need.”

This year’s theme for WTISD, “Better Life in Rural Communities with ICTs” brings
attention to those who reside in rural districts and far flung communities —
half the global population, or nearly 3.5 billion people — representing the
poorer, less educated, and more deprived cousins of the world’s urban citizens.
Among them are as many as 1.4 billion of the world’s extremely poor people, who
are also among the least connected to ICTs.

The WTISD ceremony was wrapped up with a demonstration of rural connectivity
through cloud computing. Claudio Giugliemma of the Dominic Foundation presented
the Digital Inclusion Initiative in Tanzania and the
Lucy Portal on the cloud, which can provide easy access to e-services to users
in rural communities and has built-in assistive technologies in the browser for
persons with disabilities.